Twitter’s influence mounts as its reach increases

TECHNOLOGY FOR CHANGE:Analysts say the network has become a democratizing force and was key in the Arab Spring, changing the dynamics of political power

AFP, WASHINGTON

It is becoming the preferred social network for US teens. It is an important “second screen” for TV viewers of American football and Dancing With the Stars.

It also happens to be a tool for social activists, which arguably can help topple governments.

In its brief history, Twitter has become ingrained in global politics, culture and entertainment, in addition to being a simple tool for sharing ideas.

Twitter has become a democratizing force in political life, as seen during popular movements in Arab countries, but also in the US and other developed nations.

In Arab countries, “it is very difficult for the state to dominate public discourse any more because of Twitter,” said Adel Iskandar, a Georgetown University professor of communication and scholar of Arab studies. “You can have an official statement, and this can be taken to task in an instantaneous way by the public at large. This changes the dynamics and structure of power.”

Iskandar said it would be “an oversimplification” to attribute the Arab Spring uprisings to Twitter, but maintained that the one-to-many messaging service “speeded things up.”

“These protest movements could have occurred over six or seven years,” he said. “But in a couple of days people found out what was happening a thousand miles away.”

Iskandar said the same is essentially true in the US and elsewhere, because the populace on Twitter can instantly respond or debunk messages from political leaders trying to control their message.

Twitter “has a way of disrupting the ‘status quo’ in an almost effortless way,” he said.

Philip Howard, who heads the Digital Activism Research Project at the University of Washington, said Twitter “is still one of the most important social networking tools for democracy advocates.”

Howard said that authoritarian regimes have cracked down or entrapped dissidents using Facebook, but that “content flows more quickly on Twitter and it’s harder to do that.”

He said that Twitter’s speed and mobility is useful “in the heavy days of protests when you are trying to get thousands of people to the central square.”

University of North Carolina sociologist Zeynep Tufekci, who researched recent protests in Turkey, said Twitter was “pretty much the social network that facilitated the protesters ability to break censorship.”

She said dissidents in Turkey like Twitter “because it is lightweight, it protects the users and you can follow people without having to friend them, which is important for many forms of communication.”

Panagiotis Metaxas, who heads media arts and sciences at Wellesley College, said Twitter has some advantages over other platforms like Facebook, because each tweet is equal.

“The kind of things we broadcast on Twitter have a greater propagation life than on Facebook,” he said.

Additionally, he said Twitter harnesses the power of the crowd to effectively squelch rumors and false statements in a way Facebook cannot.

“If someone wants to say silly things on Facebook, you can’t prevent that, but on Twitter it will be drowned out,” he said.

Twitter’s immediacy is being used in TV ratings, and for instant feedback for live programs like Dancing With the Stars, or to vote for contestants on American Idol.

The more Twitter grows, the more it can be used to analyze trends, moods and other important societal data. It has been used to track outbreaks of flu and other diseases, and cases of food poisoning.